The Mitchell Report is out and it names some of the biggest names in baseball as steroids users.
Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada and Andy Pettitte were named in the long-awaited Mitchell Report on Thursday, an All-Star roster linked to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that put a question mark — if not an asterisk — next to some of baseball’s biggest moments. Barry Bonds, already under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids, also showed up in baseball’s most infamous lineup since the Black Sox scandal.
The report culminated a 20-month investigation by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, hired by commissioner Bud Selig to examine the Steroids Era.
It was uncertain whether the report would result in any penalties or suspensions. Several stars named in the report could pay the price in Cooperstown, much the way Mark McGwire was kept out of the Hall of Fame this year merely because of steroids suspicion.
The news conference began at 2 Eastern and one presumes many more names will be revealed once reporters have a chance to peruse the hard copy of the report. I’ll be interested to see what methodology was used to determine guilt, since most players refused to cooperate with the investigation.
The ESPN report (all of these are in flux given the breaking nature of the news) former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski was a major source of information.
Interestingly, Tejada was traded to the Astros yesterday in a blockbuster deal.
UPDATE: There were “75 players named” including “Eric Gagne, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., Jose Guillen, Brian Roberts, Paul Lo Duca and Rick Ankiel” in addition to those named above. As ESPN observes, “there’s an All-Star at every position.”
Dave Pinto has a complete list as well as several other postings on the press conference and related matters.
Video coverage from AP:
